Stalk me...

If you'd been following us this morning, you'd have found yourself in Luciano's...


...a rather nice Italian cafe-restaurant which, despite the garish bright orange exterior, has a rather soothing ambience inside and serves up great food and a natty line in desserts (coffee and cake 9-noon and 3-5pm just £3.50). Also, telly trivia fans will be keen to know, the waiter from South Shields who may or may not serve you used to be in Byker Grove. Maybe I should be on commission? Check out those hefty light bulbs, though, they definitely ain't burning energy efficient there.

Later, with the rain belting down, I passed some time here...


...Hepworth's Arcade, where stands the legendary Dinsdale's carnival novelty store, the place to go for your fake doggy doos and itching powder. My mother was telling me the other day that my grandfather used to work upstairs in Hepworth's Arcade, when it used to house Hull's telephone exchange. They used to stand somewhere close to where I took this snap and he'd wave at them from the balcony. Who were the Hepworth's? Well, this old ad that is still on the wall really doesn't explain it all..


Yes, they were the Great XL tailors and clothiers. But does the XL mean they made clothes for the larger gentleman or are they roman numerals? Which would mean there were 40 of them, which would indeed be great. Back then it wasn't the Hepworth's Arcade - it was plain old Silver Street Arcade then. I like to think that Hepworth's 40 tailors and clothiers mobhandedly forced all the other shops in the arcade to agree to the name change. I wonder if they also bullied my grandad?

When I got home I had a nice chat with Aileen Jones, a medal winning lifeboat helmsman from Porthcawl, and some of what she told me will add a bit of flavour to the play, I should think.